Digital rights management has focused extensively on protection of “content,” such as music, motion pictures and other copyrighted data-based material. In particular, research has been made into various encryption strategies which could be employed to protect such material from copying and other uses which violate licensing agreements between content-providers and content-consumers.
Executable software code has traditionally followed a different model, wherein a consumer makes a software purchase (either “shrink-wrapped”or down-loaded), installs the software on a computer system and consents to a licensing agreement. At this point, conventional systems and methods allow the consumer to execute any part of the code contained within the software purchase to any degree desired (consistent with the licensing agreement, which typically prescribes the number of machines on which the software may be installed).
The current licensing model for executable software described above provides the consumer with an “all or nothing” choice when making a software purchasing decision—i.e. to incur the full cost and benefit, or to entirely forego the cost and the benefit. Thus, the purchasing analysis typically involves a decision as to whether the consumer anticipates exceeding a threshold level of use. If so, a purchase is made; if not, no purchase is made. In some situations, this model can be unsatisfactory for software producers, since sales are lost where consumers decline to make purchases when they anticipate that their use of a software product will be low. This model is similarly unsatisfactory for consumers, since they may inaccurately estimate need for a software product. Such a miscalculation may result in either a little-used purchase or unfilled needs which were greater than anticipated. Moreover, even where the consumer correctly estimates that use will be small and forgoes the purchase, there is dissatisfaction because consumers have unmet needs for software products.
Accordingly, a need exists for alternative techniques to license operation of software code.